OECD Postpones Swedish Anti-Bribery Evaluation

The Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development on Tuesday delayed its review of Swedish anti-bribery progress until 2019, saying the country hasn’t enacted needed legislation.

Swedish authorities expect a final bill to address remaining deficiencies in its laws concerning corporate liability for bribing foreign officials to be presented in March 2019, and adopted, at the earliest, that spring, the OECD said in a statement. The OECD said it had planned to conduct the evaluation in October 2018.

Among the issues in need of reform, the OECD said in 2012, at the time of its last full review, was to raise the maximum fine for corporations engaging in foreign bribery, which is 10 million krona ($1.2 million). The OECD called out Sweden in October for failing to address the issue of corporate liability, saying at the time that companies don’t face sufficient punishment under Swedish law for foreign bribery.

Also on Tuesday, the OECD praised Australia for stepping up its enforcement of foreign bribery since 2012, when it was last evaluated, with seven convictions and 19 ongoing investigations. The OECD highlighted reforms of the police and prosecutors to increase foreign-bribery enforcement, as well as Australia’s strengthening of whistleblower protections, changes to the criminal code and cross-border partnerships.

However, the OECD said Australia has to continue this increase in enforcement, warning about potential risk areas, including the use of real estate, to launder the proceeds of foreign bribery. One of the ways to improve detection of foreign bribery by Australia is “through an increased focus on the proceeds of crime in financial flows back to Australia, particularly those involving the real estate sector,” the report said.

Citing concern raised in 2015 by the Financial Action Task Force, an international anti-money-laundering standards-setting body, the OECD said Australia’s real estate sector, “which is very attractive to foreign investors, is at significant risk for money laundering.” Australia is considering expanding its anti-money-laundering reporting requirements to, among others, real estate agents, the report noted.

Write to Samuel Rubenfeld at Samuel.Rubenfeld@wsj.com. Follow him on Twitter @srubenfeld.

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